To compare real-life performance when zoomed-out, we shot this scene with the Canon ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS, ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS and the ELPH 100 HS / IXUS 115 HS within a few moments of each other using their best quality JPEG settings.

The lenses on each camera were set to approximately the same field of view and all three cameras were set to Program auto exposure mode.

The ISO sensitivity was manually set to the lowest available 100 ISO setting.

The image above was taken with the Canon ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS. The lens was zoomed in slightly to 5mm (28mm equivalent) to provide a similar field of view to the the two other models tested. In Program auto exposure mode the camera metered an exposure of 1/400 at f3.2 at 100 ISO. The original image size was 2.97MB. The crops are taken from the areas marked with red rectangles and presented here at 100%.

Overall, viewed at less than 100 percent, the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS test shot looks good, but, it has overexposed the scene slightly, probably by about 1/3 of a stop. As a result, there's a little loss of detail in the sky which could have been retained without losing any shadow detail had the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS metered about -1/3 EV. Though the colour looks a little cool and slighlty desaturated the white balance is actually spot on and the result is natural-looking.

Turning to the crops, generally there's a good level of detail and nothing to get concerned about. There's a slight softness in the first crop but you can still make out the details in the chapel - the door and windows - quite well. The second crop is hard to fault; the lighthouse is well defined and the horizon line along the top of the cliffs is clean and crisp with no evidence of haloing. There's a tiny bit of colour fringing in the third crop, but it's very faint and you have to be looking for it to spot it. In the fourth crop the edge detail on the window frames and balconies is reasonably crisp and you can clearly make out the fine detail in the roof tiles.

One of the most impressive things about the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS crops, though, is their consistency. The crops from the edge of the frame are ever so slightly softer then the one from the centre, other than that, it's fair to say that the lens and sensor pairing on the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS does a great job.

Compared with the ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS, the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS crops are visibly better. Given that these models almost certainly share the same sensor you'd expect the results to be similar and they are. The differences will therefore be due to the differences between the 8 x zoom of the ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS and the 5x zoom of the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS and any differences in processing. Judging by the results, though, it's the lenses which are the main factor. The ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS doesn't have the fringing problem, at least not to anything like the same extent as the ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS. The ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS crops are slightly sharper and show a little more detail across the frame and they are more consistent than those from the ELPH 310 HS / IXUS 230 HS

Compared with the ELPH 100 HS / IXUS 115 HS there's much less of a difference in quality, but the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS crops are ahead with better edge definition and resolution of fine detail. The ELPH 100 HS / IXUS 115 HS crops are pretty good, but in each one the detail is slighter softer than in the crops from the ELPH 300 HS / IXUS 220 HS. You can see the difference in the lighthouse and the houses in the froeground of that crop, the window frame edges in the third crop and pretty much everywhere in the final crop from the edge of the frame.